Spring bumper and draft gear



June 12, 1956 F. J. BOGARD SPRING BUMPER AND DRAFT GEAR Filed Nov. 5.1950 INVENTOR Fae-o J. Boanna BY m ATTORNEY United States Patent "iceSPRING BUMPER AND DRAFT GEAR Fred J. Bogard, Huntington, W. Va.,assignor to ACF Industries, Incorporated, a corporation of New JerseyApplication November 3, 1950, Serial No. 193,796

Claims. (Cl. 213-9) This invention relates to spring bumpers and draftgears in general and in particular to such gears intended for use onmine or other industrial cars.

In mine and industrial work it is generally necessary to provide highcapacity buff and draft gears yet keep the space requirements to aminimum. It is further desir able that the resistance of the gear todraft forces should be haif or less or the resistance to buffing forces.It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide acombined spring bumper and draft gear having the spring means soarranged as to give substantially less draft than buff resistance.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a combined springbumper and draft gear having a plurality of resilient means acting inunison to resist butting forces, while some only act to resist draftforces.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a springbumper and draft gear having a plurality of resilient devices, certainof which urge the bumper toward the car, while others urge the bumperaway from the car.

A yet further object of the invention is the provision of a combinedspring bumper and draft gear utilizing concentrically arranged inner andouter coil springs, with the inner springs resisting draft forces aswell as buffing forces and the outer springs resisting only buflingforces but being precompressed so as to hold the bumper in position andprevent its rattling.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to personsskilled in the art from a study of the following description andaccompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view with portionsbroken away to better disclose the construction;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 22 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view similar to the lower half of Fig. l butshowing the parts when extended under draft forces.

Referring now to the drawings in detail it will be seen that the endportion only of the car structure has been disclosed as formed with sidepieces 2 adapted to be attached to the car side sills and joined by adistorted Z-shaped plate 4 to which the car floor may be attached and anangle shaped plate 6 joined to the side pieces and to the upper portionof the distorted Z-shaped plate 4. The uppermost and outwardly directedflange 8 of the distorted ZZZ-shaped plate and the outwardly directedlower flange 16 of the angle member 6 are joined intermediate their endsby vertical plates 12, which plates are in turn joined to each other andto the vertical flange 6 by a horizontal plate 14. The space inclosed byvertical plates 12 and horizontal plates 11) and 14 constitute a housingfor the bumper head B.

The bumper head B is preferably constructed with an upper horizontalplate 16 and a lower horizontal plate 13 having their front edges curvedand welded or otherwise secured to a heavy buffing plate 20. The rearedges Patented June 12, 1956 of plates 16 and 18 are welded or otherwisesecured to a vertically extending plate 22, thus forming in elfect anopen ended box shaped bumper head which is movable within the endstructure of the car.

The vertical plate 6 is pierced at spaced points to slidably receive theshanks of bolts or other means 24 which extend outwardly from the endwall 6 and have a headed end portion 26. This head is adapted to havebearing engagement against the outer end of an inner coil spring 28, theinner end of which bears against a follower 30. This follower 30 isnormally held in spaced relation to the end wall 6 by a stop means 32.In the present instance the stop means is of circular cross-section withan external diameter suflicient to pass through a circular opening 34cut or otherwise formed in the vertical wall 22 of the bumper head. Thestop is also provided with an opening through which the shank of bolt24- may slidably move. As clearly shown the bolt is held in position bya nut or other means 36. Outer coil spring 38 are arranged concentricwith the inner springs and have their inner ends bearing against thefollowers 30, while their outer ends bear against spring seats 46 weldedor otherwise secured to and made a part of the-bumper head. In order toapply draft forces to the bumper head a shaped member 42 is secured tothe bumper head intermediate the spring seats 40 and is provided with aback face d4 adapted to have bearing engagement with a draft pin 46extending downwardly through openings in the plate 16. As shown theplate 14 is notched sufficiently to permit movement of the pin 46, whilethe flange S of plate 4 is provided with an opening 48 through which thepin may pass. As clearly shown, the pin has the upper portion reducedslightly in diameter as at 50 so that the pin will not tend to moveupwardly when being subjected to draft forces.

From the preceding it will be obvious that the inner springs 28 react onthe bolt heads to hold the followers 36 against the stops 32 and sincethe followers 30 bear against the back plate 22 these inner springs 28resiliently act to urge the bumper head inwardly toward the car stmcturewith the inward motion limited by the stops 32. Any degree ofprecompression on inner springs 28 may be obtained through adjustment ofnut or other means 36. The outer coil springs 38 have their inner endsbearing against the followers 30 and their outer ends bearing againstthe spring seats 40 of the bumper head; accordingly, these springs tendto urge the bumper head outwardly away from the car and will besufliciently precompressed at time of assembly as to prevent loosenessand rattling of the bumper head.

When the bumper head B is subjected to bufling forces the entirestructure moves inwardly toward the car, but since followers 30 are heldby stops 32, such inward motion will be resisted by both the inner andouter coil springs being compressed. When draft forces are applied tothe pin 46 this pin tends to pivot around the edge of the hole in plate8, causing the lower end to move outwardly, thereby moving the entirebumper head outwardly. Outward movement of the bumper head is resistedonly by the inner coil springs 23 as clearly shown in Fig. 3. In otherwords, the coil springs 38 do not undergo any change in draft forces butare bodily carried outwardly with the bumper head; this being due to thefact that the followers 3i) bear directly against the back plate 22.

While the construction has been described more or less in detail withspecific reference to the drawings it will be obvious that variousmodifications and rearrangements of parts may be made without departingfrom the scope of the claims defining my invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a combined draft and bufiing gear for cars, the

combination with the car of a bumper head movable outwardly and inwardlyrelative to the car under draft and bufiing forces respectively from anormal position, spaced apart pairs of coil springs interposed betweenthe car structure and bumper head and each pair comprisingconcentrically arranged inner and outer coil springs with the outer endsof the outer coil springs bearing on the bumper head, means carried bythe car structure and bearing against the outer ends of the innersprings of each pair, follower plates interposed between the inner endsof both the inner and outer coil springs of each pair and a portion ofthe bumper head, and stop means limiting the motion of said followerplates toward the car structure.

2. In a combined draft and butfing gear for cars, the combination withthe car of a bumper head movable outwardly and inwardly relative to thecar under draft and bufiing forces respectively from a normal position,a plurality of coil springs resiliently resisting the movement of thebumper head, a follower movable outwardly with the bumper head andhaving bearing engagement with the inner ends of said coil springs,means limiting the movement of said follower inwardly toward the carstructure, and means carried by the car structure and bearing againstthe outer ends of certain of said coil springs, the remainder of saidcoil springs having bearing engagement at their outer ends upon saidbumper head.

3. In a combined draft and bufiing gear for cars, the combination withthe car of a bumper head movable outwardly and inwardly relative to thecar under draft and bufling forces respectively from a normal position,a pair of coil springs resiliently resisting the movements of the bumperhead, a follower normally bearing against a portion of the bumper andmovable outwardly with the bumper head, means carried by the carstructure and extending forwardly into said bumper head, one of saidcoil 3 springs bearing at one end upon said follower and at the otherend upon said bumper head and movable without change outwardly with saidbumper head, the other of said coil springs bearing at one end upon saidfollower and at the other end upon said means and being compressedduring both inward and outward movement of the bumper head, and meanslimiting the inward movement of said follower toward the ear structure.

4. In a combined draft and buffing gear for cars, the combination withthe car of a bumper head movable outwardly and inwardly relative to thecar under draft and butfing forces respectively from a normal position,stop means, a follower normally bearing against said stop means,securing means carried by said car structure adjacent said stop andfollower and projecting forwardly into said bumper head, a firstresilient means bearing on said follower and securing means andcooperating with the latter to resiliently hold said follower in bearingengagement with said stop means, and a second resilient means bearing onsaid bumper head and follower and cooperating with the latter toresiliently urge said bumper head outwardly away from the follower, saidbumper head including a portion engaging said follower to limit saidoutward movement.

5. In a combined draft and buffing gear for cars, the combination withthe car of a bumper head movable outwardly and inwardly relative to thecar under draft and butling forces respectively from a normal position,a first resilient means resiliently urging said bumper head inwardlytoward the car, a second resilient means bearing on and resilientlyurging said bumper head outwardly away from the car, and means limitingthe movement of said head inwardly and outwardly under the resilienturging of said resilient means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,164,558 Willoughby July 4, 1939 2,190,730 Pancake Feb. 20, 19402,420,907 Pancake May 20, 1947

